Authors: Ursula Dukes
Chapter Eight
By the time their next session with Jean came around, Mari and Rosie were happy to talk and share. Fall had definitely arrived and Halloween was in a few days. Aurora had decided to throw an impromptu party and invited Liam, Nick, and Martin over for dinner and to watch a scary movie marathon. When she asked Mari and Rosie if that was something they'd be interested in doing, both women answered yes, wholeheartedly.
Tonight while Jean was there, Rosie needed to get some things off her chest. She needed to talk about her frightful past with Landon. "I used to defend him you know. I used to justify and defend all of his ridiculous accusations and when he would call me a liar, I would actually start to believe him. I tried to make good reason out of his unreasonable behavior. I remember once when I was working overtime and he accused me of seeing other men and I justified his thinking by telling myself: well I can see how he would think that because I'm gone for so long. I wanted nothing more than to make him happy and I started to change myself. I wanted to be the person that I thought he wanted me to be, but it was never enough. I had to always watch what I said, because if I didn’t, he would find some imaginary hidden meaning in my words. I could never discuss our relationship with anybody, not even family.
But when I started feeling like I'd had enough, he would break me down. He would tell me that I was nothing before I met him. He told me that he'd wasted so much time and energy on me, and that if I left him I'd be nothing but a selfish cow. You know, it even got so bad that I cut my hair and stopped going out. One night he started an argument with me over something from the past that we'd already gone over time and time again. I refused to argue back and when he realized that I was minding my own business, things escalated and he started screaming all kinds of obscenities and accusations in my face. He was saying such hurtful things that I started to cry and I begged him to stop. But he just laughed, then he backed me up against the wall and punched the wall right next to my head, his fist went right through it. I knew then that I had to get out."
Rosie took a deep breath and sat down. Aurora and Mari gave her a supportive look before turning their attention back to Jean.
"Rosie, thank you for telling us that. And the story you just told, I have no doubt is going on somewhere right now. Ladies, when a man backs you into a corner like that and then proceeds to punch a hole in the wall he is sending you a clear message. It's a horrific gesture that says, that could have been your face, and although he didn’t hit you, this is just another form of manipulation. A lot of women would have just patched up the hole or hung a picture in front of it. But we all know ladies that there is no covering up the hole in your heart. And again, you two ladies are to be commended, you've made great strides and I have no doubt that your surroundings have a lot to do with it."
"Yes they do," Mari said. "Aurora has been more than just a caretaker; she's become our confidant, and our friend."
Jean smiled. "I am so glad that this place is around," she told Aurora.
"Thank you Jean, we are so blessed to have someone like you who is so willing to volunteer their time."
"Yes we are very grateful," Rosie chimed in.
"Grateful indeed."
When Sheriff Rafferty read the paperwork on Aurora Collins, a wide smile crept across his mouth. "I knew that bitch wasn’t perfect," he whispered. He was alone in his office and had repeatedly gone over the paperwork. Aurora Collins had been Aurora Parker when she was married, and only two years after, local cops found her husband dead. Oh the report said suicide, but one could never be sure. Maybe she was some kind of black widow but her finances showed no indication of that. Maybe she was just a cold blooded killer, a killer who thought she'd go unnoticed because of her looks and charming ways.
He would have to dig further into the death of Randy Parker before he could do anything else. As far as he was concerned, Aurora Collins was responsible for the death of Ken Holmes, and he was going to see to it that she paid for it. Ken had been a good friend to Rafferty and they shared lots of common interests, one being their hatred of Aurora Collins. Ken hated Aurora because she helped his wife Gloria get away from him.
Rafferty hated her because she had a big mouth and she made the women in the small town think that they deserved special treatment. He couldn’t understand why so many women were utilizing 911 over a simple argument. Rafferty liked to think of himself as old-school, he believed that if a man and woman were to have an argument than that was their business. There was no calling the police over a domestic situation, you simply handled it yourself and if you couldn’t then you'd call in your local priest. He also thought that women today have things too easy. He hated going out to domestic calls because nine times out of ten it was her fault.
He hated having to haul a husband and/or a father down to the station, especially if he'd just come home from a hard day's work. And to top things off, he also loathed the new laws and rules about domestic violence. Especially the one where an officer must arrest a perpetrator of domestic violence. The law states that anytime an officer has probable cause to believe that an assault has occurred, even if the injury is not visible, the officer can make an arrest without a warrant within 24 hours of the alleged crime occurring. After 24 hours, the officer must obtain an arrest warrant.
Sheriff Rafferty found his officers making more arrests than not, and it happened right after the new laws were put in place. So there was to be no more letting things slide and no more stiff warnings. If you asked him, women like Aurora Collins needed to be shut up for good. To Sheriff Rafferty, she was nothing but a meddling bitch that needed a life of her own.
Landon felt as if he were done with Rosie. It was obvious that she wasn’t coming back and even if she did, he wasn’t sure that he would even let her in the house. She'd broken far too many rules anyway. And besides, he already had his sights set on someone else. Someone who told him that she had nothing to hide, someone who wanted him to take care of her. So he'd give it a try and see if this new woman really was as dutiful as she claimed she was. If she wasn’t, then he'd have to try and find Rosie, he'd broken her in after all, and he knew that if he said the right things that she'd be willing to come back. He was positive that she'd be willing to come back.
Martin was an investment banker who liked to volunteer his time at Aurora's Place. He'd lost his sister to domestic violence and ever since then he'd been dedicated to the cause. He found himself spending most of his weekends there and sometimes weeknights as well. Each and every time he found himself getting more and more attached to Rosie, and before long the two had developed a close friendship. She told him that she didn’t want to pursue anything too serious as of yet because she still had a lot of healing to do and wanted to have some time for herself. And that was alright with Martin, he quite enjoyed getting to know her at a slow and steady pace. He'd been a boy scout he told her during one of their long talks. "And just what is that supposed to mean?" Rosie flirted.
"It means that not only is my character good, but I'm also skilled in many different things." He flirted back and gave her a wink.
Getting to know a man like Martin was something that Rosie was not familiar with, when she'd met Landon it had been at a time when she'd just moved into town and was feeling vulnerable. She had just lost her mother and had returned from settling her mother's accounts when she met Landon. He was sitting at a local coffee shop, and she was outside smoking a cigarette.
"Now why would you want to ruin such beauty?" He asked her. After looking around to make sure that he was speaking to her Rosie smiled.
"I've got a lot of stress right now," she replied.
A look of concern came over him. "I know I don’t know you, but is there anything that I can do?"
Not waiting for a response, Landon guided her over to an empty table and bought her a coffee. It had all started so innocently enough. Early on in the relationship they were both unsure of what they meant to each other. Both felt that wonderful feeling of brand new love. And nothing could bring them down from their high. She thought his jealous behavior was charming. But as the relationship progressed, the jealously seemed to intensify, and it made her feel uncomfortable. But still she brushed it off and interpreted it as Landon's devotion to her. And each time that she would want to talk about his jealousy he would come up with a million excuses.
He would blame the people around them or circumstances from her past. He became fixated on her past and anything she neglected to tell him about it. He would accuse her of lying if she forgot to tell him something, then use that as proof that he could not trust her. And thus began the abuse, both verbal and physical. There was even one time when she tried to confide in a young married couple that she'd befriended. But Landon was very charming, and he used that charm to manipulate people. And he was very good at it too, by the time her friends had finished talking with him, they were convinced that she was lying. From then on she'd decided to keep things to herself.
She never again told a soul about the abuse that Landon was inflicting on her. Rosie was free now, and she knew that under no circumstances would she ever think about going back. No matter how bad things got, they were always worse when she was miserable and with Landon. Thanks to Aurora and Mari, she would be able to get her life back on track and forget about Landon once and for all.
It was Halloween night, Rosie, Mari, and Aurora busied themselves in the kitchen. As hard as she tried to brush it off, Aurora felt nervous. She hadn't seen or heard from Liam in days and was a bit surprised that he even accepted her invitation to join them for dinner and movies. The sound of the doorbell made them all jump. Giggling, Aurora answered the door. It was Martin and Nick, they'd arrived at the same time. "Welcome. Happy Halloween, come in, come in." She smiled at them.
"Place looks great Aurora," they both said.
Heat was blazing from the logs in the fireplace, and the entire house was decorated with a warm, comforting autumn motif.
"It certainly does and I have Mari and Rosie to thank for that."
While she showed her guests to the kitchen, the doorbell rang again. Her heart fluttered, she hoped that it was Liam. The man is becoming more than a delicious distraction; she thought to herself and opened up the door.
"Hi," he said and took her in his arms and gave her a passionate kiss. "Happy Halloween." Liam handed her a heavy gift bag. Taken by surprise she stood aside and let him walk in. "Well aren’t you going to open it?"
She gave him a quizzical look before looking in the bag. Inside were several bottles of wine, bags of handmade chocolate confections and all kinds of goodies. And in a separate smaller bag was a wrapped gift box.
"What's this?"
"I think you better save that for later," he grinned. Aurora quickly withdrew the box and placed it in the closet. Her cheeks grew rosy.
Turning, she gave Liam a thoughtful look. "Thank you for coming," she said softly.
He wrapped his arms around her. "You're welcome."
"What is this Liam? Come on man you're going to make us look bad," Nick said looking at the overstuffed gift bag.
"It's for everybody." Aurora grinned and emptied its contents.
After the introductions were made they sat down to a dinner of pork roast, new potatoes, carrots, and roasted apples and onions.
"That meal was delicious Rosie," they all beamed.
"Thank you, just an old recipe that my mom taught me," Rosie said. She hadn't known what it was like to be acknowledged, it felt good.
"You are a marvel in the kitchen," Martin whispered to her. He knew that she was being modest about her cooking.
"What's for dessert?" Liam asked while looking at Aurora.
"Pie," Mari chuckled with laughter. Soon everyone at the table was laughing and having a great time. They had moved the gathering into the living room and settled in with fresh refills of wine and bags of gourmet chocolate before watching the movies.
"What are you going to do about this Ken situation?" Nick asked Aurora.
She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not really worried about it. I mean I wasn't the one who killed him. I'm not sorry that he's dead either, there I said it. I mean it was days ago and look at us? We're all going forward with our lives are we not? Life goes on. The world doesn’t stop because Ken Holmes was killed. I know that you all won't agree with me on that, but that's how I feel, life goes on and karma always catching up to you in the end. The only thing that I wish I could change would be the threat that I made towards him. Everything else happened just the way that it should have. I bet you're sorry you asked me that aren’t you Nick?" She eyed him with criticism.
Nick returned her gaze. "Aurora, I've known you for quite some time and because of that, I wouldn’t expect any other answer," he said and playfully nudged her on the arm.
"Good, now can we please watch the movie?" She asked and took a sip of wine.
Liam hadn't said so, but he thought her response to Nick's question an honest one. She was the most giving, caring person that he had met, but there was such a sense of rawness to her honesty that he found more than intriguing. It was a turn on too. He wondered how she would react to what he'd purchased and placed in the bag. He hoped that she wouldn’t find it too cliché but if she did, he was sure that she would have no problems telling him so.
After the movie marathon Aurora whispered into Liam's ear. "Come with me," she said and got up from the sofa.
Liam looked around. Rosie and Martin had taken off into the kitchen, and Mari and Nick were sitting in front of the fire talking.
Aurora said no words to excuse themselves, she simply took him by the hand, retrieved what was in the closet and headed towards the door. She was a little tipsy, and he laughed as she led him towards the loft.